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Jack opened his door to his apartment and dropped his luggage on the ground. Then sighed. It was late at night and he just wanted to sleep. Jack wanted to see ___, but she hadn’t spoken to him in about two weeks. It was driving him insane. He decided to go knock on her door.
Standing at her door and getting the nerves to knock on it. He didn’t want to bug her. He took a really deep breath. Then heard music and ___ giggling. Well more like squealing, his heart dropped. She was just having fun… Not answering his calls or text messages… Now he was just annoyed for some reason, he couldn’t describe his annoyance, and he knocked with force.
A moment of silence. Then she finally answered the door.
“Hi, Jack!” She was all dressed up. Her hair and makeup looked so very nice. Wearing a skin tight dress, while showing off her curves. Jack couldn’t speak. He wasn’t prepared for her being all dolled up. He expected, flour or paint on her face and in her normal baggy clothes. ___ called behind her. “Can we take a break?”
A guy called out, “yeah” and ___ stepped out into the hallway with Jack. She closed the door behind her. She nervously tucked a hair behind her ear.
“How have you been, Jack?”
“Alright… I just got home…” There was an awkward silence. “Why have you been ignoring me?” Jack just blurted it out, but he had to know.
“I really didn’t mean to. The cafe got crazy popular while I was gone. We did an expansion, I’ve flown to LA and back three times. I’ve hired a lot of people. Right now, I am doing an interview, Lyric and Craig are in there too. It’s been so crazy.” As she rambled, Jack started to relax and understand. “I am so sorry, Jack. I really didn’t mean to ignore you.”
___ reached out and touched Jack’s arm tenderly with pleading eyes.
Jack couldn’t help but smile as he put his hand on hers.
“I understand. I’ll come see the expansion tomorrow.”
“I don’t work at the cafe anymore! I stay at home and do paperwork. Then I volunteer at the shelter or the orphanage to cook for them.” Jack just watched her smile and talk about all the changes with the cafe. “I will be home tomorrow, though. Just doing paperwork. We’re thinking about just changing the cafe into a restaurant. So I am crunching the numbers for it and all that.”
“Wow… A lot really has happened in two weeks… No wonder you haven’t answer all of my tries to contact you…”
“I really am sorry about that… Do you want to hang out tomorrow afternoon?”
“I’d like that.”
“Great.” ___ just smiled at him.
“Get back in here… I want to go home…” Lyric opened the door and looked at Jack. “Kiss or get back in here.” Lyric closed the door before hearing their reply.
Awkward silence hung in the air and ___ cleared her throat.
“So… Um… I should go.” ___ pointed behind her to the door.
“You look really beautiful, just sayin’.” Jack shrugged since he didn’t want her to go.
She nervously looked down and back up at him. He bit his thumb for a second.
“Aw, fuck it.” Jack leaned in and kissed her. Jack heard her squeak of shock. He slowly pulled away to see her face bright red and wide eyed. While he smirked.
___ was simply speechless.
“Why?” She whispered.
“What do you mean: ‘why’?” He was confused now.
“Why did you kiss me?”
Jack didn’t know what to say, he thought it would be clear.
“Did Mark say something? Have you amused yourself?”
He could see the fear in her eyes. She was scared, but he didn’t know from what.
He sighed, wrapping his arms around her while hugging her tightly.
“There’s no reason to be scared. Mark didn’t say anything. I kissed you because I wanted to… No other reason…” He rested his chin on her head.
After a few deep breaths, she hugged him back. “I’m scared.”
“Why?”
“Sam.”
“I care for him a lot.”
“But…” ___ trailed off. He knew she was scared for Sam to get attached to him, then if they ended badly. She was scared of how heartbroken Sam would be.
He pushed her back enough to look into her eyes. “We’ll take it slow. Let’s go on a date tomorrow. Go to the movies and have dinner together.”
“Okay.” She whispered.
“I’ll text you. I am tired from the flight. So you can go back to your interview and I can go home and sleep.”
“Alright.” ___ was still a little perplexed from him kissing her. “Can I call you Sean?” She shyly mumbled.
Jack grinned at her question, because how she was being all shy about it.
“You can call me whatever you’re comfortable with.” He leaned down and kissed ___ again. The kiss was soft but brief yet again. He didn’t want to push things too far. “Goodnight, ___. Sleep well. I will see you tomorrow.”
He walked away back to his apartment and ___ breathed deeply before going back to her interview.

___ was dancing around her room to songs by Lindsey Stirling, while trying to find an outfit for her date with Sean. She was dancing around in her bra and underwear with music on full blast. She had already done her makeup naturally and curled her hair a bit. It was about 2 in the afternoon, but Sean had never messaged her exactly what time he’d be coming to get her. ___ was so excited that she just decided to get ready once her paperwork was done. She kept in mind what Mark had said to her, and she really wanted to give Sean a chance.
Jack could slightly hear music outside of ___’s door, but she wasn’t answering. He opened the front door cautiously.
’Why did she leave the door unlocked?’ He asked himself as he closed the door behind him. Then followed the music to, what he assumed, was her bedroom. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. The music was probably too loud for her to hear him knocking.
Sean sighed, then opened the door. He blushed at the sight of ___ dancing around to music. In nothing, but her underwear. She turned around and gasped. Quickly shutting her laptop. Then shyly waved at him.
Jack chuckled and waved back.
“You realize, you’re in your underwear… Right?”
“You’ve seen me in a swimming suit… What’s the difference?” She shrugged.
“I guess that’s true, but this just seems a little dirtier.”
“Probably because we’re in my room.” She giggled a bit, then leaned over to pick a baggy shirt off of her bed and put it on. Thankfully there was clothes scattered about her room. “Anyways, sorry… I didn’t hear you.” ___ leaned over and picked up her phone to see a missed call and a couple of text messages.
“That’s fine… Are you almost ready?” Jack was looking at her room. He’d never been in her room before.
“Yeah, I was just debating on a couple of different outfits.” ___ looked at her bed with 3 different outfits. “Do you want to choose? I’ve got a dress, something baggy and something a little more cutesy?” She didn’t really know how to describe the last one. She looked at the window. Remembering they were in shitty, rainy Ireland. “Nevermind on the dress, I forgot it was raining.” ___ sat down on the bed looking at the two outfits. The dress top with skinny jeans and a cute leather jack. Then a baggy band shirt with relaxed jeans.”
“What do you want to wear?” Sean asked as he walked over to a wall, looking at painting on the wall. It was a winter landscape with footsteps leading to a small child making a snowman with a larger figure. Sean reached out and touched the painting, the texture of the trees and snow were put out from the canvas, paint layer on top of paint layer. The painting felt dark and cold, as if were from a sad memory. As Sean was studying the painting ___ walked up to him, dressed in the cutesy outfit with the leather jacket. “You look very nice in that.”
“Thanks, I haven’t worn this outfit in a long time. I got annoyed with the pants, I don’t usually wear skinny jeans. I feel really weird in skintight clothes.”
“Don’t worry about your jeans… You look amazing in them.” Sean reached out and touched the painting again. “This is really beautiful, but sad.”
“I painted it after the accident. I had a good memory about them and I was very depressed while I painted it. I wouldn’t be shocked if it portrayed a bit of that emotion. But, I do love how it turned out. One of my best, I think. It always makes me smile now. I love seeing Steve’s and Nikki’s figures. It makes me feel better sometimes.”
“So this is a memory?” Sean was shocked at the scene. “So you’ve been here?”
“Yeah. It’s in America. Steve wanted to go snowboarding. We went with Nikki. While near the lodge we all went over to the side of it. Nikki wanted to building a snowman so we did.”
Sean was looking at ___ as she spoke. Listening to her ramble about her past and watching her smile grow as she talked about her daughter.
“You had some great times with them.”
“Some really good memories… I miss them, but I’ve accepted everything.”
“I am sure it was really hard on you.”
“Yeah, but everything is looking a lot better. The cafe is going great, I’m getting Sam soon and the house I put an offer on might go through.”
“House?”
“Oh yeah… I haven’t told you, have I?” ___ walked over to her bed and sat down to put on her shoes. Sean followed behind her. “I promised Sam a dog and I think dogs should always have a yard, if they can. So I have been looking into some homes with good yards and enough rooms.”
“How many rooms do you really need?”
“Well, my mom refuses to be away from her grandson. So she’s moving in with us, Sam needs a playroom, I need a hobby room and of course there needs to be a gaming and movie room. So I found a good house. It’s only got 4 rooms, but a lot of space and a couple of office spaces. Then a big kitchen area.”
“Sounds like a mansion.” Sean chuckled.
“It’s pretty big, it’s about 3000 square feet. But with so many hobbies, running a business and having my mother and Sam. I’ve wanted a big house, like I used to have with Steve. We got a big house. We wanted three kids so we got a big place. Before I moved here, I sold the house. Put it all in savings…” ___ went silence for a moment and grinned. “Well I have Sam, at least, and he’ll get really fucking spoiled. Although I may never be able to give him more siblings.”
“You never know.”
“Unless I get remarried, I don’t think I’ll be having any more kids. I do feel bad about Sam not having siblings though… At least he’ll have a dog.”
“The future is unknown. But,” Sean took her hand, “we do have a date. If you’d like, we need to get going soon.”
“Yeah… Let’s get going.”